Muddy Waters. Are we crazy?

Austin: “I just realized we’re pregnant, homeless and jobless.”

Stacy: “Ya, but can we get ice cream?”

Pregnant, homeless and jobless. Some may call us crazy. “How scary is that?”, people ask. Or, “Are you just going nuts having no idea where you’ll end up?” The answer to that honestly is, sometimes! We have our freak out moments for sure! With the shear fact that they haven’t sent us Cobra paperwork yet no matter how many times we’ve asked and our mail starts forwarding tomorrow to our parents house. Leaving us our whole trip without insurance possibly. We just tell ourselves, it’s going to work out. We’re growing. We’re learning. Mostly, we’re learning to trust more heavenly things than earthy things.

We’re in what we called “muddy waters” right now. Packing our house, trying to remember where things are, living out of a suitcase and on a blow up mattress with oh so much to do each day. The part of going for our dream that the devil tries to tell you it’s too hard to keep going. Let’s stop where we’re at and choose the easy way. Accept the job offer that we know we’re better than so we have an end in sight. Do we even want to travel that long? Or just sleep in a cozy unpacked house for the next month? Of course God stepped in just in time with a very close devotional to this topic. When we promise ourselves dreams, we’re not letting down other people to not go for those dreams, we’re letting down ourselves. Austin said, “I’m just tired” the other day. “This is a lot of work to prepare for but I don’t want to let you down.” The comment broke my heart. I immediately asked, “is this not what YOU want?” Have our minds changed from what we initially thought would be relaxing vacation? The answer was no. It was just muddy waters clouding our perspective telling us to quit instead of keep going. Because we’re worn down, pregnancy trying us and small setbacks that test our patience. It takes perseverance to keep going. In the end it’ll be worth it. So, if we were to choose the easy way now and pass up our dreams for “easy” it wouldn’t be the end that WE dreamed of. It’d be the end that was easy. How often do us humans choose easy over Joy? People always say nothing worth it is easy and let me tell you how true that can be. My dad showed me a line graph scale one day of his salary and experience over time and how it gradually increased moving up. Then he drew a dramatic line increase straight up instead of moving with the slant and said this is where I changed my path. This is where I decided I didn’t want to gradually increase the slant. I want to change my whole line to a new slant. This line won’t change itself, it can only be changed by you and the lottery. Your chances are much higher to change it yourself. We decided with each move we wanted to do just that. Not just accept what’s easy and what’s next on our “slant” or what our boss has in mind for us but really challenge ourselves to live and do what we want on a whole other scale. It’s then that you can truly be present and happy. It’s so easy to say oh I’d love to live there or not be stuck here and granted sometimes we are trapped but sometimes we can change a lot about our lives if we just go for it. Push ourselves to not just accept our drawn boundaries and draw new ones. And no I’m not just talking dollar signs and personal gain. I’m talking the WHOLE picture.

So, I challenge you today. What in your life aren’t you happy about? What dreams do you have about your daily life? How can you change it? How can you actually do it? Push yourself. Talk to your spouse about your dreams and ask theirs. If you live more than a month doing something, around something or in something that doesn’t make you happy. CHANGE IT! Don’t just say, I can’t. You can do a lot more than you think! Pray about it! I have always always said that I truly believe God disguises his plan with ambition on your heart. What is your heart telling you? Is that a whisper from God? Be obedient to your calling. This is our constant challenge to ourselves. Not how can we make more money? Or how can we live in the most beautiful place? But how can we live the life God wants us to live!!! How can I listen to his calling when he’s faintly whispering? How can I listen harder?